Conservatives: continental drift

Amid the mole traps and Maltesers, it is easy to forget that we elect politicians to do a serious job – and it is as well to recall that when casting a vote. That is true not only at Westminster, but also in town halls and in Europe, where there is a choice to be made in two weeks' time. Often dismissed as a talking shop, the European parliament now has real powers – to change laws, direct budgets and to affect the appointment of the European commission. Riding high in the polls, Britain's Conservatives can expect to be charged with much of this work. Sadly, the party has saddled itself with a commitment that makes it much harder to do.

The problem goes back to 2005, when a modernising candidate for the leadership, one David Cameron, hyped up his own Euroscepticism to make a pact with the devils on his party's hard right. He promised to do what neither his traditionalist rivals nor any previous leader had done – split off from Europe's mainstream right and establish a new bloc that was hostile to Brussels, bent on frustrating European unity rather than advancing it. The reason why John Major, Iain Duncan Smith and the rest always threw their lot in with German Christian Democrats and French Gaullists was certainly not because they were federalists. Rather, it was because they understood that they needed friends in Paris and Berlin if they were to have any influence in European debates.

Mr Cameron is not stupid, and knows this as well. Since making his pledge he has found alternative ways to build bridges with Germany's chancellor, Angela Merkel. While welcome, that does not solve the dilemma about where to recruit for his new European bloc. Under EU rules Mr Cameron needs partners in five other countries to establish a recognised group, giving him little choice but to look east. The Czech Civic Democrats – the party founded by the ­climate change sceptic, President Václav Klaus – is the one prospective partner that the Tories are being open about at this stage. Another is likely to be Poland's Law and ­Justice party, a homophobic and reactionary rabble headed up by the Kaczynski twins, who not long ago floated the reintroduction of capital punishment. Hard-line nationalists from the Baltic states could also be part of the gang.

Moderate voters who might happily back a competent Conservative in the local council in polling on the same day should surely think twice about using their European vote to boost this sort of a grouping. That, presumably, is why the plans are being kept under wraps. If he ends up keeping such company, Mr Cameron will weaken the hand of his MEPs in delivering for their country. What is more, he will risk undoing his own work in refreshing his party.